Indian Newslink Feb 15, 2016 Digital Edition

2 HOMELINK
February 15, 2016
‘Airlift’ hijacks true events in Kuwait
Related story on Page 12
Captain Zain Juvale
Airlift’ has made a false
claim. It was not the
recitation of events as
they happened.
There was never an ‘Airlift,’ as
portrayed in the movie.
Gunpoint capture
I was the Captain of ‘Safeer,’
a cargo ship in the Kuwaiti
waters. I was captured along
with my crew at gunpoint and
held captives for 35 days in
Kuwait.
Through sheer determination,
persuasion, and tactful handling
of the Iraqi forces, I managed
not only to get my crew and
ship released but also rescued
725 Indians on board my small
cargo ship, through mined
waters.
This was the first batch of
Indians to be successfully
rescued out of Kuwait.
I have a list of all the 725
persons rescued with their
passport numbers, and also a
letter of thanks signed by all of
them, plus my crew of 25.
I also have newspaper
clippings of all the International
newspapers covering the event,
as proof.
Unfortunately, in the past 25
years, successive governments
at the Centre and the State levels
in India have failed to acknowledge
my humanitarian mission,
as I defied their warning and
went ahead with my mission.
Editor’s Note: I was among a handful of journalists who covered
the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait that began on August 2, 1990 and the
events that followed, leading to the ‘Gulf Storm,’ the First Gulf War
to liberate Kuwait. Those five months were more memorable in my
career, superseding even the Iran-Iraq war (September 1980 to August
1988) that brought fear and anxiety to the Middle East in general and
the Arabian Peninsula in particular.
I will write later about the sleepless nights that I spent covering press
conferences held in Bahrain (where I lived and worked), Saudi Arabia
and the events that occurred during and after the War in Kuwait. As
well as meeting US military officials aboard USS Lincoln, former British
Prime Minister Sir John Major and taking helicopter rides to a number
of locations, I was reporting the evacuation of Indians from Kuwait via
Jordan to India and to a number of other Gulf destinations including
Bahrain.
For now, we run the following report by Captain Zain Juvale which
challenges ‘Airlift,’ a film by Kumar that appeared to have stirred the
emotions of Hindi film fans around the world. But the real story was
something else.
A Gulf News Report after the Rescue in Kuwait
Its success was a slap in the
face of the prophets of doom.
Governments ignore
Surprisingly, the International
shipping fraternity also chose to
ignore this event.
But it hurts to know that
someone else is claiming
credit for rescuing Indians from
Kuwait. Unfortunately, the then
External Affairs Minister Inder
Kumar Gujral is no more. He
could have vouched for the
facts that I have mentioned
in this and other articles
appearing and soon to appear
in Indian Newslink, as I had a
discussion with him regarding
my plans, when he briefly
visited Kuwait soon after the
invasion.
I wrote to Raja Krishna
Menon, Director of ‘Airlift,’
when I heard that he was
embarking on this project, to
get the facts from me. But he
never bothered to reply.
The Master of ‘Safeer’ in Kuwaiti waters in September 1990
Captain Juvale with his crew aboard ‘Safeer’ in September 1990
Editor’s Note: I was fortunate to speak to Mr Gujral over the
phone in Baghdad when he asked me to break the news to the
world that ‘India had decided to close its Embassy in Kuwait,’
which was declared by Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein as the
19th Province of his country. I did so and the news item became
a sensation throughout the world. Three days later, on his
return to India, Mr Gujral confirmed my report in Lok Sabha.
Read ‘There was nothing like ‘Airlift’ under Viewlink on Page 12
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